Lois Weisman

The Weisman lab uses yeast to study neurodegeneration and cancer, with the goal of determining the mechanisms of myosin V based transport and phosphoinositide signaling. The ultimate goal is to develop novel therapies for relevant diseases.

Lois Weisman researches the underlying causes of neurodegeneration and other neurological diseases, of which little is known. Her work focuses on myosin V based transport and phosphoinositide lipid signaling in yeast and neurons, with the overall goal of uncovering new, essential subcellular processes and to determine how these impact human physiology.

The Weisman lab outlined the mechanisms by which the brain makes two important signaling lipids and determined what roles those lipids play in neuronal communication. Improper levels of the lipids can cause severe neurological problems, such as a type of Charcot-Marie-Tooth disorder, one of the most common hereditary neurological disorders, and some motor neuron diseases, including some cases of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also called Lou Gehrig’s disease).
The research was published in October 2012 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.